Manawatu’s hot streak ends
Manawatu only lost one game at the national under-19 netball championships this week – it’s a shame it had to come in the final.
Hamilton City won the final 35-31 in Wellington Thursday, handing Manawatu their first loss of the tournament and reversing their 32-28 loss to Manawatu in pool play.
Manawatu coach John Atkins said it was unfortunate they lost the final game.
‘‘Hamilton were just that little bit better,’’ he said. ‘‘They deserved to win, there’s no arguments about that.
‘‘It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t quite pull it out at the end.’’
In the final Hamilton shot out to a 7-1 lead early in the game and were leading by six goals at halftime.
Manawatu turned it around and were down by just two in the second half, but they made a few mistakes and Hamilton took advantage of those to restore a comfortable buffer.
Atkins said Hamilton made a few positional changes from their pool game, which strengthened their attack.
Manawatu were called unheralded for reaching the final, even though they won the title in 2014.
There were three players named in the tournament team in wing attack and goal attack Diahn Tepania-strickland, centre and wing attack Braxton Te Riini and goal shoot Emily Autagavaia, who played every minute of every game.
Defender Antonia Hei Hei had a great tournament as well. Initially unavailable, Hei Hei was only a late injury replacement for Awhina Anderson.
Otherwise it was a great tournament for Manawatu, who pulled off some big results. In their other pool play games Manawatu beat Whangarei 50-17 and Mainland Combined 57-20, and drew 34-all in an exciting game against Auckland.
Manawatu beat Christchurch 40-23 in the quarterfinal and beat Waitakere 36-29 in the semifinal.
The semifinal win over Waitakere was in extra time too, where they had come back from four goals down at halftime to level the scores, then won extra time 8-1.